The 15th Century As It Should Have Been.
A rich and evocative tale, set in a mythic 15th-century Britain, to rival the work of Bernard Cornwell.
In Nether Norton village, life goes on as it has for centuries in the Realm, through the coming and going of the Slavers and the arrival of the Sightless Ones and their Chapter Houses. Will reflects on the two happy years since he and Willow circled the fire together, and the recent birth of their daughter, Bethe. Yet feelings of unease stir inside him. An unnatural storm rages on the horizon. Is his past coming back to haunt him?
Four years ago, Will ended a bloody battle by cracking the Doomstone in the vault of the Chapter House at Verlamion. It seemed then that the lust for war in men's hearts had been calmed forever. No longer so certain, Will seeks advice from his mentor Gwydion, a wizard of deep knowledge and power, once called 'Merlyn'. Gwydion suspects his old enemy, the sorcerer Maskull, has escaped from the prison to which he was banished when Will cracked the Doomstone. Is Maskull again working to hasten a devastating war between King Hal and Duke Richard of Ebor, helped by the battlestones that litter the landscape, inciting hatred in all who draw near?
Only Will - an incarnation of King Arthur, Gwydion believes - has the skill to break the power of the battlestones. Will last left Nether Norton as a youth of 13. Now a husband and father, he has a lot more to lose. But he has a whole Realm to save.
